


Betrayed

by LibraryMage



Series: Whumptober 2018 [9]
Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Gen, Whumptober
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-01
Updated: 2018-11-01
Packaged: 2019-08-14 00:23:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16482560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LibraryMage/pseuds/LibraryMage
Summary: Ezra trusts the wrong person, and Kanan is caught in the middle.





	Betrayed

**Author's Note:**

> Set in a modern AU where the Ghost crew are superheroes.
> 
> warning for: eye injury (burning & sharp force)

“Kanan?”

Ezra sprinted to where Kanan lay on the ground, groaning in pain.  He knelt down and grabbed Kanan’s shoulder, carefully turning him onto his back, only to gasp and instinctively draw his hand back when he saw the damage.

Dark, charred burns crossed Kanan’s face, and his eyes…his eyes were just _gone_.

“Kanan,” Ezra said, his voice barely above a whisper, as if all the air had been sucked out of his lungs.  His stomach churned at the smell of burned flesh as he leaned over Kanan, frozen in place, at a complete loss for what to do.

“Ezra.”

The sound of Kanan’s voice, so weak that Ezra could barely hear it, hit him like a punch to the gut.  Ezra let out a quiet whimper as he stared down at Kanan’s face.

“Ezra, run,” Kanan said.

“I --”

Before Ezra could say another word, he heard footsteps behind him.  He gasped and grabbed hold of the knife Kanan kept in his boot.  He stood up and turned around to see Maul approaching.

Maul.  It had to have been him.  He’d betrayed them.  Maul had _lied_ to them, to _him_.

“S--stay back,” Ezra said, his voice shaking as he clutched the knife tightly in his hands, the blade out, pointing at Maul’s chest.

“Put it down, Ezra,” Maul said as he advanced, undeterred by the weapon in Ezra’s hand.

“Stay back!” Ezra said again.

He lunged forward, slashing at Maul’s chest.  Maul caught his wrist and twisted it, his other hand curling into a fist and slamming into Ezra’s stomach.  Maul wrenched the knife out of Ezra’s hand and dropped it to the ground, kicking it aside.

“Why?” Ezra shouted as he tried to wrench his wrist out of Maul’s tight, painful grip.  “Why would you do this?”

“Did you really think I would let him and Tano live to turn me in?” Maul said.

“What did you do to Ahsoka?” Ezra asked, his eyes going wide.

“She’s alive,” Maul said, his hand tightening around Ezra’s wrist.  “She escaped.  The two of you won't be so lucky.”

“Let…him…go.”

Kanan’s voice was ragged and heavy, each word coming out in between gasps of pain as he pushed himself up onto his hands and knees, the empty, unseeing holes where his eyes used to be turned toward where Ezra and Maul stood.

“If you…if you hurt him --”

Kanan’s words were cut off by a gasp of pain and Maul let out a cruel laugh that rang in Ezra’s ears.  As Ezra watched, Kanan clenched his jaw, gritting his teeth against the pain.  Ezra could practically see Kanan summoning his strength before he threw one hand out.

Ezra braced himself just before Kanan’s force field burst outward, slamming against him and Maul, knocking them both to the ground.

“Run!” Kanan shouted.

Ezra stumbled to his feet, not bothering to check what had happened to Maul, and rushed to Kanan’s side, grabbing his friend’s arm and pulling him off the ground.

“Just go,” Kanan said as he stumbled along beside Ezra.  “Leave me if…if you have to.”

“No,” Ezra growled, half-dragging Kanan’s barely-conscious form with him as he kicked open the nearest door and stumbled into the alley.  He couldn’t keep this up.  He wasn’t strong enough to carry Kanan much farther.  Maul might not even have been knocked out.  He’d catch up to them and Ezra had no idea what he would do then.  Kill Kanan, probably, and after that…Ezra’s breath hitched in his throat as he tried to keep moving.  He didn’t know what Maul’s intentions were towards him, but he wouldn’t be surprised if Maul just planned to torture and kill him, too.

Still supporting Kanan with one arm, Ezra reached into his pocket.  He still had his phone.  He could call for help.  Hera, Zeb, Rex.  He’d even take Hondo at this point.  His hand shook as he tried to dial Hera’s number, only to notice the small circle with a line through it in the corner of the screen.  No signal.

“Fuck,” he muttered.

“Ezra,” Kanan said.  “Just run.  Don’t -- don’t let him hurt you, too.”

“I’m not leaving you,” Ezra said, his voice breaking.

The door they’d left through slammed open and Maul emerged into the alley, his eyes burning with anger as he advanced on Ezra, who was now shaking with the effort of holding Kanan up.

Ezra’s eyes darted frantically around the alley, but found nothing within his reach that he could use to defend himself.  He couldn’t outrun Maul while he was dragging Kanan with him.  And now he was unarmed, cornered, with no help nearby and no way of protecting himself or Kanan.

“J--just let us go,” Ezra said, his voice shaking.

“That is not going to happen,” Maul said, his fingers tightening around the knife in his hand.  Kanan’s knife.  The one Ezra had used to attack him and stupidly left behind when he ran.

“What do you want?!” Ezra shouted, taking a stumbling step backwards, pulling Kanan with him.

Maul stopped in his tracks, a sinister smile twitching across his face for a moment.

“You,” he said, his voice cold.

“What?” Ezra asked, feeling like something was tightening around his throat.

“Come with me, Ezra,” Maul said.  “I can teach you more than he ever has.  I can help you avenge your parents.”

“Don’t…listen…to him,” Kanan said, his voice shuddering with each word he spoke and each breath he took.

“Look at him,” Maul said, the knife’s blade flicking through the air toward Kanan.  “He could barely care for you before.  How will he be able to do that now?”

“Don’t you _dare_ act like that matters to you when you did this to him!” Ezra shouted, now shaking with rage as well as fear.  “You think you can attack my family and then tell me to leave them?  I will _never_ join you.”

Ezra flinched as Maul took a step forward, his free hand closing around Ezra’s arm.

“I don’t recall giving you a choice,” he said.

“No,” Kanan said.  Ezra’s heart skipped a beat.  His voice was so much weaker than before.  He needed help and he needed it _now_.

It was then that Ezra heard it; a shuffling noise off to his left.  He glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw a dark shape low to the ground, searching through a pile of trash.  A dog, alone without a human.  That was better than nothing.

Ezra closed his eyes and latched onto the feeling of the dog’s mind, too desperate to bother with gently coaxing it to let him in.  He sent out a panicked cry, practically screaming into the animal’s mind.  _Help!  Please, help!_   He shoved the mental command into the dog’s head, not allowing himself to take even a moment to feel guilty or have second thoughts.

The dog, knowing exactly what Ezra wanted and compelled to obey, ran toward them and leapt at Maul, knocking him to the ground as it sunk its teeth into his shoulder.

“Come on!” Ezra said, shifting his grip on Kanan and pulling him along as he bolted for the end of the alley.

Once they were out onto the dimly-lit street, he forced himself to keep running and keep running and _keep running_ until they’d made it far enough away that he couldn’t hear the dog’s barks and snarls anymore.  He dropped Kanan as gently as he could onto the steps of a random brick building, panting with exhaustion.  As he looked up, he saw that every window in the building was dark, with no sign that anyone was awake or even at home to help them.

Ezra fumbled for his phone as he sat down on the concrete steps beside Kanan.  He glanced beside him and immediately set aside thoughts of calling Hera.  He quickly dialed 911 instead, hoping that paramedics would even be willing to come here, and that they’d arrive in time if they were.

_“911.  Fire, police, or ambulance?”_

“A--ambulance,” Ezra said.

_“What location?”_

“I -- umm…” Ezra glanced around quickly, his heart hammering even faster as he realized he wasn’t even entirely sure where he was.  “I don’t know.  H--hold on.”

He stumbled to his feet, hesitating and glancing down at Kanan, then back in the direction they’d been running from, before racing to the nearest street corner to get a better look at the signs.

“East 40th North,” he said, his voice shaking, “and Auburn.”

 _“West 40th and Auburn?”_ the man on the other end of the line asked.

“No!” Ezra said, his voice breaking.  “ _East_.”

 _“Stay calm,”_ the man said.  _“Paramedics are on the way.  What happened?”_

“My, um…my dad,” Ezra said, tears welling up in his eyes as he made his way back to Kanan’s side.  “S--someone attacked him.  They -- they stabbed him in -- in his eyes.”

_“What’s your name, kid?”_

“Ezra.”

 _“Ezra,”_ the man said, his voice so calm Ezra wanted to scream, _“the paramedics are almost there.  Is your dad still conscious?”_

“Barely,” Ezra said.

As he said it, Ezra could hear the wail of sirens drawing closer.

“Th--they’re here,” Ezra said.

 _“Alright,”_ the man said.  _“You can hang up the phone if --”_

Ezra didn’t bother waiting for him to finish the sentence before he hung up and shoved his phone back in his pocket.  As the ambulance pulled over a few feet away, Ezra sat on the steps again and clutched Kanan’s hand tightly.

“It--it’s okay,” he said, his voice shaking.  “They’ll help you.  You’re going to be fine.”

* * *

 

Ezra squirmed at the feeling of the weird synthetic material of the chair against the skin of his palms.  The sound his jeans made against the material as he moved just made him want to squirm more.  _Everything_ made him want to squirm right now, but the worst thing was the police officer who sat in an identical chair a few feet away from him, leaning toward him in a way that was probably supposed to be friendly as she took notes.

“What _exactly_ happened to him?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Ezra said for what felt like the hundredth time that night.  He’d had to answer the same question from nurses and doctors and two other cops already before this one had pulled him aside in the staff’s break room for a “formal” statement.  “I -- I found him like that.”

“You found him?” the officer repeated.

“Yes,” Ezra said.

“Where?”

“I --” Ezra cut himself off before he could say another word, not wanting to tell her anything without having thought of a convincing lie.

“Where the paramedics picked us up,” Ezra said.

“Is that where you live?” the officer asked.  Ezra shook his head.

“So what was he doing there?”

“I don’t know,” Ezra said.

“He’s your dad, isn’t he?”

Ezra nodded, not wanting to deviate from what he’d already said to the 911 operator, the paramedics, and the doctor.

“But you don’t know why he was there?” the cop asked.  It was so painfully clear that she didn’t believe him that it made Ezra flinch as if she’d shouted at him.

Ezra shook his head.

“So how did you know to find him there?”

“I…I --”

As Ezra scrambled to come up with an explanation, the door opened, saving him from having to answer.  He looked up and immediately felt as if something had tightened around his throat as Hera entered the room.

“Excuse me,” the officer said, “I’m taking a witness statement.  I need the room for a few more minutes.”

“I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to be questioning him without a guardian present,” Hera said, her voice tight, almost stilted, like she was trying to keep herself together.  Hearing it just made Ezra’s throat feel even tighter.  He couldn’t remember Hera ever sounding like that before.  “He’s sixteen.  He’s a minor.”

“And you’d be his guardian?” the officer asked.

“Yes,” Hera said, sitting down in a chair beside Ezra’s and taking his hand, gripping it tightly.  “I’m his mother.”

The officer’s eyes darted between Ezra and Hera, as if she was trying to figure out whether that was true or not.

“Foster mother,” Ezra mumbled quietly.  He knew he and Hera didn’t look that much alike, but their skin was close enough in tone that most people didn’t look past that and accepted that they were related.  But they were _just_ close enough in age that most people would assume she was his aunt or sister.

“I see,” the officer said.

Ezra kept his gaze fixed on Hera’s hand that was wrapped around his as he continued answering the officer’s questions, barely comprehending what she asked or what his answers were.  A few times, he felt Hera’s hand grow tighter around his and he felt his heart skip a beat as he wondered if he’d said something wrong and wracked his brain only to find himself unable to remember what he’d said just seconds before.

He was vaguely aware of Hera speaking, her voice tense and frustrated.  Ezra was pulled to his feet and led out of the room with Hera’s hand on his back.  The next thing he knew, he was sitting beside a hospital bed, Hera’s arm around his shoulders as he stared blankly down at his hands.

“It’s okay,” Hera said, her voice so much softer than it had been in the room with the cop.

Ezra latched onto the sound of her voice, letting it draw him back into his own head.  Slowly, he looked up, a quiet whimper escaping his throat as he laid eyes on Kanan.  He was unconscious, an IV in his arm probably keeping him sedated and on pain medication.  His eyes -- or where his eyes _used_ to be -- were covered by sterile bandages.

He’d seen Kanan hurt before, but never like this.  Kanan had always seemed so invulnerable, and now here he was, out cold, his eyes gouged and burned out of his skull.

“Ezra,” Hera said gently, “what happened?”

“I don’t know!” Ezra said, a fresh wave of tears flooding from his eyes.

 _Can Kanan even cry anymore?_ he wondered, the question rising to the surface of his mind out of nowhere.

“Maul,” he said, his voice breaking.  “He -- I don’t know what he did, exactly.  I wasn’t there.  I just found Kanan like -- like _that_.”

“Maul?” Hera repeated, as if she wasn’t sure she could believe it or not.  “But weren’t you --”

“He turned on us,” Ezra said.  “I -- I still don’t even understand _why_.  I thought -- I thought I could trust him and he --”

Ezra’s voice broke off and he covered his face with his hands, pressing down over his eyes as he gasped for air, trying desperately to draw in breath around the panic that wrapped around his throat like a rope.

“This is all my fault,” he said, his voice shaking.

“No,” Hera said quickly.  “None of this was your fault, Ezra.  You didn’t do this.”

“I trusted him,” Ezra said.  “ _I_ convinced Kanan to work with Maul.”

“And Maul was the one who hurt Kanan,” Hera said.  “Not you.”

Ezra shook his head vigorously.  Hera didn’t understand.  She hadn't been there when Kanan had spoken to Ezra alone, laying out all his concerns about Maul and why he thought Ezra should stay away from him, and Ezra hadn't listened.  He’d believed every word Maul said to him.  He’d set himself up to be betrayed by someone he trusted and Kanan had been caught in the middle of it.

He’d gotten his friend, his mentor, his _father_ blinded.  He didn’t deserve to hear Hera telling him it wasn’t his fault.  Not when he’d betrayed Kanan just as much as Maul had betrayed him.

Slowly, Ezra lowered his hands, forcing himself to look at Kanan, to see the consequences of his actions.  No matter what Hera said, he knew the truth.  He knew he was to blame for this.


End file.
